Hong Kong to recognise qualifications of non-local doctors from 27 overseas medical schools, allowing them to work in city without licensing exam

Hong Kong will recognise the qualifications of non-local doctors who trained at 27 overseas medical schools from Friday, exempting them from a licensing exam to practise locally in a bid to ease a chronic manpower shortage.

Health authorities announced the institutions on Wednesday, naming them as the first batch for a special registration scheme that the government earlier said was likely to include about 100 eligible medical schools.

The 27 in the group, from Australia, Canada, Singapore, Britain and the United States, include top institutions such as the University of Oxford and Johns Hopkins University.

No universities in mainland China are included in the first batch.

The list comes into effect on April 29, allowing graduates of those medical programmes, under certain conditions, to practise in Hong Kong without the need to pass a local licensing exam under the scheme.

“Given the current shortage of doctors in the public healthcare system, the announcement of the first batch of recognised medical qualifications is timely for qualified non-locally trained doctors to come to serve in public healthcare institutions in Hong Kong through special registration as soon as possible,” Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee said.

“For students who intend to study medicine outside Hong Kong, they may refer to the list when making their choices for further studies.”

The list, drafted by a Special Registration Committee led by Professor Grace Tang Wai-king, will be gazetted on Friday and take effect on the same day. It will then be submitted to the Legislative Council on May 4 for “negative vetting”, a process under which the government implements legislation and Legco can amend it later.